Annotation

Mirrors, by Sylvia Plath.

This progression of photos was designed to tell the story of a woman, yet instead of the reflection of the water in the poem, a mirror is used as representation. The photos are grainy to capture a rough emotion.

Beyond the draft: Originally, the photos were left for open interpretation with the poem in a separate document. In order to more highly incorporate the language of the poem with the photos, I inserted a series of lines from the poem that corresponded with the photo. The poetry can be found in the captions of the photo. I think this edit to the original draft speaks more profoundly than previously. [original work can be found here.]

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful, The eye of a little god, four-cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers. Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, Searching my reaches for what she really is. Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon. I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.

She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands. I am important to her. She comes and goes.

Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.